There are no moral victories in sports. It hurts when you lose and I don’t know if there is anyone that hates losing more than I do. My team, Charm City Electric, lost two games last night to Tim’s Towing 13-8 and 14-12 in the Perry Hall Softball league. The losses hurt but I don’t know if I have ever been prouder of the way our team played since I joined them two years ago. Tim’s is the premiere team in our Perry Hall softball league and we battled them tonight. Our team has been in a tremendous slump over the past few weeks and we’ve been struggling at the plate and have made some very poor decisions that have cost us games. Tonight the entire team was on point and we battled throughout the whole night. We were a few clutch hits away from victory in game two. The night ended for us with Tim’s shortstop making an incredible over the shoulder catch in short left field as we were threatening to tie the game.
It was a bit of a rough night for me. I pulled a muscle in my right leg in the middle of the first game. So getting around became a bit of a struggle. After starting slow at the plate I got things going in game two. I singled to right twice and was just barely able to beat the throw to first from right field after laboring down the first base line. So next time up I did what any smart hitter would do, I lined a single to left field so they couldn’t throw me out at first. Overall I was 3-6 on the night with a walk. I have to give Tim’s a lot of credit their entire team are outstanding hitters and really know how to use the entire field. Pitching to them is always a battle. I spent the whole night trying to throw pitches they couldn’t hit hard and to be honest I wasn’t real successful. I got a lot of help from our fielders tonight. Our left fielder Brian Seger made a couple of great plays in the first inning that really set the tone.
Our new addition, Rob Taylor, made the play of the night for us at second base going far to his right for a ball and then rolling it to second while he was falling down to get the out. I also helped myself out a couple of times, deflecting a ball up the middle to our shortstop who turned the 1-6-3 double play. We also turned a more conventional 1-6-3 that I fielded cleanly to get out of another jam.
If our team plays with the same passion that we played with tonight and plays as smart as we did tonight we will definitely be a tough out when our playoffs come up in the next couple of weeks. Before I go I want to recognize the Wounded Warriors that participated in the Celebrity Softball Game at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City on Sunday night. Wounded Warriors Matt Kinzey and Saul Bosquez represented the team well.
Kinzey singled twice and homered at the plate. He also made a tremendous play at shortstop and earned the game’s MVP honors. Bosquez dropped a single over shortstop Ozzie Guillen’s head.Kansas Head Basketball coach Bill Self said it best after the game, “The coolest thing, and I’m sure (American Idol winner) David (Cook) agrees, was the Wounded Warriors guys who played,” Self said. “To see the sacrifices up close and what they’ve given for all of us is so cool. It was good to see them have some fun and have some success.” I love watching these guys and they inspire me to want to go out and play the game. Remember if I can do it you can do it too.
Until next time…
